I arrived in Las Vegas on Friday July 7th at 4:00 pm. I check into the Sunset Station with my husband and my 6 year old son. After freshening up and changing clothes I had my husband drive me over to the Gold Coast to meet my friend, Wendy for a satellite for the Ladies Event at the WSOP. The satellite was supposed to be all women but looking around I had to wonder about a few of the women. Wendy busted out rather quickly and I went out about midway through. Some of the players in this tournament were worse than any home game I have ever been too. It was crazy. Oh well, Wendy and I had already won our buy-ins to the Ladies Event in a poker league that we play in at home in Alaska.

We hopped in a cab and went over to the MGM for some 1/2NL. I hit quads and a few other big hands and managed to leave about $300 up in 40 minutes. We decided to walk over to the Luxor to try the $50 1/2NL cash game. I lost $100 in about 30 minutes. It’s an all-in fest. I hated this game, but Wendy loved it. I decided I should call it a night and I left Wendy there and took a cab back to the Sunset Station. As I was walking up to my room I realized I left my cell phone in the cab! I called my cell phone a million times but there was no answer. I called every cab company in Vegas but none of them had my phone. This is especially frustrating because when I was in Vegas in February I had flushed my cell phone down the toilet in the MGM. I can’t even get a piece of toilet paper to flush down the toilet but a phone will go done at turbo speed! The phones go to Vegas but they don’t come back.

The next morning I got up early and took my son to the pool. This is his first trip to Vegas and he was loving the pool. We don’t have outdoor pools in Alaska so this was a treat. Then we went to the airport to pick up my parents. They were there to watch my son while my husband and I were playing in WSOP events.

I went to bed at 9:00 pm Saturday night because I was playing in the WSOP ladies event the following day. I woke up at 6:00 am in the morning and I couldn’t go back to sleep so I decided to get up and start my day. I made my husband get up and take me to breakfast. We drove over to the Rio and I got settled in for the day. I was there early so I decided to sit down at 4/8 limit. I only got to play for ½ hour when they decided they had to move the table to make room for some other game. I decided to just cash out as I was up about $150.

When I got my seat card for the WSOP event, it was seated at table 6, seat 8. I decided this was a good sign because I love the hand 6 8 when it’s suited. I made my way to the table. I was relieved to see there would not be anyone famous at my table. While I was sitting waiting for the tournament to get underway I noticed Shannon Elizabeth was sitting at the table next to mine. Jennifer Tilly was at the next table over from Shannon Elizabeth. When the tournament started, the cameras were all over those 2 tables. Again I am relieved I am not at one of those tables as it would be hard to concentrate on the game with a boom and camera in your face!

My friends started dropping like flies from the tournament until I was the last one (out of 8 in my group) to remain in the tournament. The field had been narrowed down from 1128 to about half when Jennifer Tilly’s table broke. There was an empty seat next to mine and I was thinking, “please don’t come over here, please don’t come over here, please don’t come over here!” Well, 30 seconds later, she saunters over to seat 9, right next to me. It wasn’t that I was afraid or intimidated to play with her; I just didn’t want the media attention on my table. She was very personable and nice. But she also meant business. She was there to win. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen for her. She was crippled just before the dinner break. They gave us an hour and a half for dinner. I wasn’t hungry so I just walked around checked out some of the booths that were set up. I also went and bought a disposable cameral so I could get my picture taken with Jennifer.

When we came back from dinner, the media was swarming our table. Luckily it wasn’t the full-on ESPN TV crews. One reporter wanted a picture of her belt buckle. It was a custom-made rodeo style belt buckle made by one of her friends. It was jeweled up with cards and it said, “Jennifer F’ing Tilly” on the top and on the bottom it said, “I’m Gonna Kick You’re A$$!” (I censored it!)

Since Jennifer was short stacked I knew she would be making a move soon. After a couple of hands, in the SB, she raises 3 x the BB. The play folds around to me, I am sitting on the button. I look at my cards AsKs. I have her covered by a huge amount. She has about ¼ of her stack in so I figure if she really wants to play it, she will go all-in after the flop. I say, “All-in”. She sighs and says, “ I really hoped you wouldn’t wake up with a big hand!” And she folds. A few hands later she goes all-in preflop with pocket 3’s and is taken out by a sweet gal from Texas named Heather. Heather just turned 21 five days earlier. Phil Laak came over and said he was going to have to kick Heather’s ass for taking out his girlfriend. It was funny.

Play continued and my table celebrity free for the rest of the night. Play slowed down considerably as we got closer to the money. They were paying down to 99. They announced we would be playing hand for hand. The dealers were instructed to deal one orbit then stand up when they were finished. After all the tables were completed with their orbit, they announced we were all in the money! Woo-Hoo!!

After that, people started busting out right and left. As the stacks grew at my table, my stack was looking pretty small as I was not seeing any good cards. I made a couple all-in moves and picked up a few blinds. The last all-in I had, I had AQ offsuit. The player to my right called with KJ offsuit and caught a J to take me out in 57th place. I cashed for a little over $2500.

I took a cab over to the MGM to meet my friends. We played a little 2/5 NL and I cashed out $200 ahead. The next day I checked my family into the MGM while my Dad drove my Husband over to the Rio for his event. We did a little sight seeing and shopping all day. I didn’t hear from my husband all day which I knew was a good sign. He finally called on his dinner break and said his stack was a little above average and he was feeling good. They had just over 2800 in his event and it was dwindling down fast.

He finally came into the hotel room at 3:00 am. He busted out in 185th place with a cash of a little over $2300. It was a first trip to the WSOP for both of us and we both cashed. We were very happy. He had one funny thing happen to him when he was leaving the Rio. He got in a cab and while they were pulling out of the driveway, the cab driver cut someone off. When he looked over he was getting flipped off by Mike “The Mouth” Matusow! Priceless.

The rest of the time we spent doing family stuff. We went to Freemont Street to see the light show, Circus Circus Adventurdome, Imax at the Luxor, etc. The Imax was cool but I thought I was going to be sick. I don’t recommend it if you get motion sick. We all had a great time but next time we will leave our son at home. We are planning our next WSOP trip already!